Hamilton model 915 classroom record player from '97

[radiotvnut]

Here's a Hamilton 915 4-speed classroom record player with pause control. The downside is the wimpy IC-based amp and plastic tonearm (that looks just like the plastic tonearms from the '50's). The upside is that it still uses a metal turntable platter and a General Industries AC motor that is date coded 1996. The amp, even though it's small, looks well built with a socketed IC. I'm surprised to see a classroom record player this new with an AC motor and I know that Califone switched to DC motors in the late '80's, as did Audiotronics for some of their models. The design of this drive mechanism also goes back to the '60's and they are still using the "CPS" designation, instead of "Hz."

[holmesuser01]

I have this same model player. I replaced all of the electrolytics on the amp and made it sound vastly better and even less hum than it had when I got it.

[radiotvnut]

With the 89T cartridge that was installed in the tonearm, it skipped all over the place on records with a lot of bass and it carved up styrene 45's on the first play. I replaced the cartridge with a mono Tetrad from www.thevoiceofmusic.com and this cartridge tracked fine and didn't carve up records on the first pass. However, I could tell that this cartridge was not as hot as an 89T. Looking at the amp, they had the cartridge shunted with a 100 Kohm resistor. After removing this resistor, the record player sounded every bit as good as it did with the 89T.